Cultural depictions of elephants

[3] The Earth is supported and guarded by mythical World Elephants at the compass points of the cardinal directions, according to the Hindu cosmology of ancient India.

Wisdom is represented by the elephant in the form of the deity Ganesha, one of the most popular gods in the Hindu religion's pantheon.

The elephant vāhana represents wisdom, divine knowledge and royal power; it is associated with Lakshmi, Brihaspati, Shachi and Indra.

[12] The unfamiliarity with the exotic beast has also made elephants a subject of widely different interpretations thus giving rise to mythological creatures.

The scattered skulls of prehistoric dwarf elephants, on the islands of Crete and Sicily may have formed the basis of belief in existence of cyclopes,[c] the one-eyed giants featured in Homer's Odyssey (c. 800~600 BC).

For example, the Libyan Tadrart Acacus, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, features a rock carving of an elephant from the last phase of the Pleistocene epoch (12,000–8000 BC)[16] rendered with remarkable realism.

Rembrandt did a series of sketches of the famous 17th century elephant, Hansken, and featured her as a symbol of chastity in his 1638 etching Adam and Eve.

[34] In 326 BC after Alexander the Great's victory over King Porus of India, the captured war elephants became a symbol of imperial power, being used as an emblem of the Seleucid Diadoch empire.

In about the year 800 AD, an elephant called Abul-Abbas was brought from Baghdad to Charlemagne's residence in Aachen as a symbol of the beginning of the Abbasid–Carolingian alliance.

The elephant is mentioned in the visit of Frederick's brother-in-law Richard of Cornwall to Cremona in 1241, in the Chronica Maiora of Matthew Paris.

This very select religious organization is the highest order of Denmark, and uses the elephant as a symbol of docility, sobriety and piety;[35] instituted in its current form in 1693 by King Christian V. In the early 1800s Napoleon Bonaparte wanted a monument to his own imperial power, and he decreed that a colossal bronze elephant fountain be cast from guns captured at his victorious 1807 Battle of Friedland.

[36] In 1870, the killing and eating of the elephants Castor and Pollux from the Botanical gardens during the Siege of Paris received considerable attention at the time.

The symbol of the city is the Fontana dell'Elefante (Fountain of the Elephant) assembled in its present form in 1736 by Giovanni Battista Vaccarini.

The heraldic elephant and castle has also been associated with the city of Coventry, England since medieval times, where it denotes religious symbolism[f] and with the town of Dumbarton, Scotland.

In the western African Kingdom of Dahomey (now part of Benin) the elephant was associated with the 19th century rulers of the Fon people, Guezo and his son Glele.

The variation "Women and elephants never forget an injury" originates from the 1904 book Reginald on Besetting Sins by British writer Saki.

The idiom Elephant in the room tells of an obvious truth that no one wants to discuss, alluding to the animal's size compared to a small space.

[k] Jumbo originally was the name of a huge elephant acquired by circus showman P. T. Barnum from the London Zoo in 1882.

Other elephant characters that are shown in a positive light include Jean de Brunhoff's Babar and Dr. Seuss' Horton.

In addition, the animal is depicted in its military use through the oliphaunts of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings trilogy and the alien invaders of Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle's 1985 science fiction novel, Footfall.

The story of picking the mascot began when New York Giants' manager John McGraw told reporters that Philadelphia manufacturer Benjamin Shibe, who owned the controlling interest in the new team, had a "white elephant on his hands"; manager Connie Mack defiantly adopted the white elephant as the team mascot.

[67] The American band the White Stripes' fourth album was entitled Elephant in honour of the animal's brute strength and closeness to its relatives.

[69] "Nellie the Elephant" is a children's song first released in 1956 and since covered by many artists including the punk-rock band Toy Dolls;[70] For her album, Leave Your Sleep, Natalie Merchant set to music "The Blind Men and the Elephant" poem by John Godfrey Saxe, which is based on the parable.

In popular modern films, Tai the elephant-actress has portrayed Bo Tat in Operation Dumbo Drop (1995), Vera in Larger than Life (1996), and Rosie in Water for Elephants (2011).

is a 2008 American animated adventure comedy film based on the 1954 book of the same name by Dr. Seuss, produced by Blue Sky Studios and distributed by 20th Century Fox.

In shatranj, the medieval game from which chess developed, the piece corresponding to the modern bishop was known as Pil or Alfil ("Elephant"; from Persian and Arabic,[p] respectively).

Even with modern Chess, the word for the bishop is still Alfil in Spanish, Alfiere in Italian, Feel in Persian, and "Elephant" (Слон) in Russian.

Although the ambitious project was never completed with its intended bronze elephant, a full-sized plaster and wood-frame model stood in its place.

After Napoleon's defeat, this structure eventually became a neglected eyesore, and a setting in Victor Hugo's 1862 novel, Les Misérables.

The largest, seven-story, thirty-one room Elephantine Colossus served as a hotel, concert hall, and attraction on Coney Island before it burned down in 1896.